 Public events are events that everyone living at the time know about and are exposed to (political, war/murder, sports/entertainment or news events), but private events are only experienced by the individual (relationships, births/deaths, work/education, home/leisure, illness and religion).When recalling public events, participants were between ages 10 and 19; and when recalling private events, participants were between 20 and 29.Researchers suggest that public events are recalled at an earlier age because individuals are gaining a sense of generational identity.